Heat
kills more people in the U.S. each year than any other type of weather event.
More than 100 million
Americans were under heat warnings and advisories as of Tuesday morning,
with heat indexes predicted to climb to up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit in
some parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas on Wednesday.
The United Kingdom, meanwhile, recorded its highest-ever
temperature — 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit — on Tuesday, prompting schools to close
and train service out of London to cease. France saw similarly high
temperatures on Monday.
The highs in some areas of Europe and the U.S. could pass the
physical limits of what the human body can handle, according to Kim Knowlton,
an assistant clinical professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia
University.
"There’s an awful lot of assumption that heat is an
inconvenience, but it kills people," Knowlton said.
In the U.S., heat kills more people annually than any
other type of weather event. Over just the last two weeks, Spain and Portugal
have collectively reported more than 1,100 heat-related deaths.
"Climate change is fueling these dastardly heat waves that
are almost beyond belief, and we’re not accustomed to them yet," Knowlton
said.
How
extreme heat kills
A 2017 paper identified 27 different paths through
which heat waves can lead to organ failure.
People with the highest risk of dying from extreme heat include
the very young, very old, pregnant people and those exposed to extreme heat for
long periods of time at work, including people who work in warehouses or on
farms.
"The passive exposure, the classic heatstroke, is more
[often in] vulnerable populations like children," said Michael Sawka, a
physiologist at Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences.
Cardiovascular issues are the most common cause of heat-related
deaths. In extreme heat, the heart starts to pump faster to increase blood flow
to the skin, which contributes to cardiovascular strain. The body also starts
to sweat more, which can cause it to lose water and decrease the volume of
plasma in your blood, making you more prone to blood clots.
Sawka said early signs of
cardiovascular distress from extreme heat include dizziness, disorientation or
warm, wet skin.
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Knowlton said symptoms tend
to progress from sunburn to heat rash, followed by heat cramps, fainting, heat
exhaustion and eventually heatstroke.
People who experience heatstroke may ultimately stop sweating,
she added, because the body can no longer regulate and cool its temperature.
"The body is not able
to conduct that excess heat away from the body core, and core temperature
starts to rise," she said. "Once it rises beyond 104 to 105
Fahrenheit, there are a number of physical systems that really start to break
down."
Some people develop heatstroke on the same day as their exposure
to extreme heat, while others don't fall ill until a few days later. Knowlton
said recovery is possible, "but there tends to be really long-term —
sometimes lifetime — impacts."
After experiencing
heatstroke, she said, "people are much more sensitive to further exposures
to heat."
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Knowlton also cautioned people to be careful if they take
medications that can impair the body’s ability to respond efficiently to heat,
such as antidepressants, diuretics, beta blockers, or migraine or allergy
medications.
How hot is too hot?
In evaluating the deadliness of a heat wave, scientists pay
close attention to “wet-bulb temperatures” — the combination of heat,
humidity, wind speed, sun angle and solar radiation.
A 2020 study found that the human body cannot
efficiently cool itself past a wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It’s not a matter of just reaching that temperature for 10
minutes or an hour during the day, but sustained temperatures at that level can
really hit the limit of what our human bodies can do,” Knowlton said.
Healthy people who experience heatstroke are usually physically
active on days with intolerable wet-bulb temperatures, according to Sawka.
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The deadliness of a heat wave also depends on how accustomed one
is to high temperatures.
In Ahmedabad, India, temperatures are consistently high, so
authorities may not issue a heat alert under temperatures reach 105 degrees
Fahrenheit, Knowlton said. But in New York City, she said, temperatures of 95
to 99 degrees Fahrenheit for at least two days are enough to constitute a
health warning.
How to protect yourself — and your pets
The simplest ways to reduce the risk of heat-related illness are
well known: Drinks lots of fluids, run fans or air conditioning at home if
possible, and avoid excess outdoor activity on extremely hot days.
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The World Health Organization recommends that room
temperatures be kept below 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and below 75
degrees at night.
If you're generally healthy, Sawka said, it may be wise to
acclimate yourself to high temperatures for at least 50 to 60 minutes per
day when it's hot outside but not stifling.
"Obviously, if it's 107, that's not the day to heat
acclimatize," he said. "But if it's 85 degrees early in the summer
and it's not as hot, go out and be active a little bit outdoors."
If you start feeling ill due to the heat, Sawka advised soaking
in a bathtub of cold water, making sure the water temperature is much lower
than your skin's or the temperature outdoors. If a cold bath isn't an option,
you can place your forearms in a cooler filled with water and ice, he said.
Unfortunately, pets may have a harder time cooling themselves on
extremely hot days. Dogs and cats overheat more easily than humans, since they
have fewer sweat glands and rely on panting to lower their body temperature.
But strategies for
preventing heatstroke are similar for pets: Give them lots of water; keep them
in cool, indoor temperatures (and never inside hot cars); and avoid prolonged
outdoor walks or runs when temperatures get too high.
Aria Bendix
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